CALDWELL: “WE WILL WORK TO FIND WINNING FORMULA AGAIN”

Boss frustrated at lack of incisive play in final third, but keen to not panic as winless run in all competitions extended to four with home defeat to Blackpool.

Caldwell: “A lot of frustration and disappointment in the result.”

“We need more creativity and responsibility on the football,” says Gary.

Boss feels side need to do the simple things better, something that will be worked on this week in training.

Latics manager Gary Caldwell felt his side didn’t create enough to gain anything from Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Blackpool, as his side’s winless run extended to four games in all competitions.

Tom Aldred’s first-half header was the difference on the afternoon as Latics dominated possession but couldn’t make that pay as the Seasiders recorded consecutive 1-0 victories in Sky Bet League One.

Reflecting with LaticsPlayerHD afterwards, Caldwell said:

“There’s a lot of frustration and disappointment at the result for everyone.

“I thought in spells we were OK, but we didn’t put the ball in the box enough and then we didn’t make enough of the good opportunities that we created.

“We didn’t create enough from the play that we had; we created the odd opportunity but we know we have to be better and we’ll work extremely hard to try and do that.

“We have to play with more responsibility, be braver on the ball and enjoy our football more - then the results will come.”

After going 11 games unbeaten in League One between September and November, Latics have now picked up just one point in their last three games after a home defeat to Burton Albion and goalless draw at Southend United were followed up by Saturday’s defeat to Blackpool.

However, Caldwell has urged for calm, with over half of the season remaining and Latics still in the top six.

“We have to keep working; you can’t hide away from the disappointment and you have to stand up and be counted,” he added.

“It is a long season, this is a bad couple of weeks for us but we’ve got a strong group that will stand up and be counted and recover from this. We have to keep going, there is no point crying over the last few weeks and the results we’ve had, we have to find that winning formula again. That will come through hard work in training and having belief in ourselves. I feel at the times that we make a few bad passes and the belief goes too quickly, we have to be stronger.”

Latics will play four games in a three-week period over Christmas as they travel to Barnsley next weekend before a Boxing Day clash with Sheffield United at the DW Stadium is followed by trips to Fleetwood Town and Scunthorpe United.

And Caldwell wishes he could play the Tykes tomorrow.

“I’d play tomorrow at Barnsley if I could!” he said. “We’ve got a week to deal with what happened against Blackpool, though, and we’ve got a week to move on and work on the things that we need to improve on.

“We’ll go into that game with a strong team, because the talent in this squad isn’t in question, but we have to use that talent to get results.

“We’ll work on how we’re going to get back to scoring goals this week; we need to get the ball into the box more and work on how we’re going to create more opportunities.

"Work will go into our forward play and how we can be more of a threat. We feel that the play we do to get into the final third we do well, and that isn’t easy. We do a lot of hard things very well but it is the simple things we have to get better at and that comes on the training pitch with hard work.”